I also want you to know we adopted a $150 million budget, most of which is going for outreach and mission to a world sorely in need of the saving Good News of Jesus Christ. I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about all these good things (and more) accomplished by your church in the past two weeks in Columbus.

But, I am also keenly aware that there are several other issues of immediate interest to you. Although never more important than the mission and ministry to which Jesus Christ has set us, these several issues of our churchs polity seem to take on enhanced standing right now. So, let me speak to these two up front.

In Columbus, the Church elected its first female Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori. It came as quite a surprise to me, to the thousands gathered at the Columbus Convention Center when it was first announced, and perhaps to many of you, too.

However, any doubts many of us may have had concerning her experience or the relatively small diocese from where she comes were quickly answered as she took a visible leadership role in both the House of Bishops and House of Deputies to ensure successful passage of our various responses to The Windsor Report.

I am coming to appreciate that Bishop Jefferts Schori possesses many leadership gifts we need in the coming years. While I disagree with some of her theological positions, I am fully committed to working with her to affect needed change within our Church. I look forward to welcoming our new Presiding Bishop into our diocese soon.

Also, our church addressed The Windsor Report head-on and prepared a number of responses to our international partners. First, as I and the clear majority of the House of Bishops see it, Resolution B-033 created, in effect, the moratorium called for by Windsor; that is to effect a moratorium on the election and consent to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate who is living in a same gender union until some new consensus in the Anglican Communion emerges.

I am pleased to say that after several days of faithful discernment, General Convention acted decisively.

Listen to exactly what the Resolution which was passed states: Standing Committees and dioceses should exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.

Also, echoing the precision of Windsor, Resolution A-160 states we are mindful of the repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation enjoined on us by Christ and expresses regret for straining the bonds of affection in the events surrounding the General Convention of 2003. The church also specifically asks for forgiveness. General Convention also began the first steps of study of an Anglican Covenant.

I feel we have substantially complied with the requests in The Windsor Report.

Over the past week, I have heard some say that The Episcopal Church should not have elected Bishop Jefferts Schori simply because she is a woman. They say it will be too great of an additional strain on the Communion. Yet, hear specifically what Windsor says about women bishops: After lengthy deliberation, the [Communion] concluded that although the ministry of a woman as bishop might not be accepted in some provinces, that represented a degree of impairment which the Communion could bear. Any attempt to derail her ministry because of gender is disingenuous. I hope we will all keep her in our prayers.

Also, I have heard some say that The Episcopal Church did not do enough in responding to Windsor regarding the 2003 election of Bishop Robinson. Also, some are trying to paint our response to The Windsor Report as insufficient or imprecise. Yet, the words speak loudly: exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church.

The Resolution not only satisfies the Windsor requirements, but goes beyond what Windsor asks in effecting a moratorium on all whose manner of life is objectionable to our international brothers and sisters, not merely addressing one particular manner of life so specific to Windsor.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, I am well pleased with our collective efforts at General Convention. Were we perfect in all that we did? Of course not. But, I know that we worked hard to please God.

Just as Thomas Merton prayed, I too petition: MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. AMEN

These past two weeks, your Episcopal Church has attempted mightily to please God.

Blessings this Third Sunday after Pentecost,

+John

--John Howard is the Episcopal Bishop of Florida